Ptolemy Philadelphus

Hellenistic pharaoh (r. 288-246 b.c.e.)

• Born: February, 308 b.c.e.
• Birthplace: Island of Cos, Greece
• Died: 246 b.c.e.
• Place of death: Alexandria, Egypt

Under Ptolemy, the domestic institutions and the foreign policy characteristic of Hellenistic Egypt matured. His patronage of the arts and sciences established Alexandria as the most important cultural center of the Greek world.

Early Life

In 308 b.c.e., Ptolemy Soter (367/366-283/282 b.c.e.), fighting to secure his place among the Macedonian dynasts eager to claim their share of the legacy of Alexander the Great (356-323 b.c.e.), personally led an expedition into the Aegean in order to anchor his influence in the region through alliances and a series of naval bases. Along with Ptolemy Soter went his third wife, Berenice, who gave birth to Ptolemy Philadelphus (TOL-uh-mee fihl-uh-DEHL-fuhs) on the island of Cos. Berenice was the least well connected of the polygamous Ptolemy’s three wives. She had come to Egypt in the retinue of Eurydice, when that daughter of Antipater came as Ptolemy’s bride. Despite her political insignificance, Berenice was Ptolemy’s favorite spouse, and her son Ptolemy Philadelphus became heir to Egypt over the claims of an older son of Eurydice, Ptolemy Ceraunus (“thunderbolt”).

Ptolemy Philadelphus was not to be the man of action his father had been. Reared at an urbane court in the greatest city of the Greek world, he was a devotee of a softer, more culturally inclined life. He had the best of educations under the likes of the Aristotelian Strato of Lampsacus (d. c. 270 b.c.e.) and became a king who preferred to rule from his capital, rather than personally oversee his varied foreign interests.

In order to facilitate the transfer of authority to his chosen son, Ptolemy Soter elevated Ptolemy Philadelphus to the throne in 288 b.c.e., and they ruled jointly until Ptolemy Soter died about three years later. On the accession of his half brother, Ptolemy Ceraunus fled Egypt to the court of Lysimachus (c. 360-281 b.c.e.) in Thrace. There his sister, Lysandra, was married to Lysimachus’s son Agathocles (361-289 b.c.e.). Lysimachus, furthermore, was married to Arsinoe II Philadelphus (c. 316-270 b.c.e.), the sister of Ptolemy Philadelphus. Probably to foster the inheritance of her own young sons, Arsinoe II convinced her husband that Agathocles was engaged in treason. Lysimachus had Agathocles executed, and, as a result, both Lysandra and Ceraunus fled to the Asian court of Seleucus I Nicator (358/354-281 b.c.e.). When Seleucus defeated and killed Lysimachus in 281, Ceraunus fought on the winning side.

The true nature of Ceraunus’s loyalty, however, revealed itself when he soon after assassinated Seleucus and seized Thrace. Arsinoe II fled to Macedonia on the death of Lysimachus, to secure it for her children. Not satisfied with the murder of Seleucus, Ceraunus also aspired to add Macedonia to his realm, which he accomplished by marrying Arsinoe II, his half sister. For reasons that are not entirely clear, Ceraunus eventually butchered two of Arsinoe’s three sons. Perhaps Ceraunus limited his wife’s freedom, but she remained in Macedonia until he was killed fighting Gauls in 279 b.c.e. With Macedonia overrun by barbarians, Arsinoe II and her surviving son, Ptolemy, again fled, this time home to Egypt.

Ptolemy Philadelphus’s queen was another woman named Arsinoe (a daughter of Lysimachus), by whom he already had three children. Nevertheless, not long after Arsinoe II came to his court, Ptolemy exiled his first wife, and sometime before 274 b.c.e. he married his sister. It was this union that later earned for Ptolemy the name “Philadelphus” (“brother-loving”; Arsinoe II alone bore the title in life.) The marriage scandalized many of Ptolemy’s Greco-Macedonian subjects, but royal brother-sister unions were known in Egypt, and its consummation had the effect of drawing the Europeans in Egypt closer to native tradition.

Life’s Work

Ptolemy ruled Egypt at the height of its Hellenistic power, but before the return of Arsinoe II to Egypt, little is known of Ptolemy’s foreign ambitions. In the early 270’s b.c.e. he was interested in fostering a regular spice trade with Arabia and as a result recut a neglected ancient canal from the Nile’s delta to the Gulf of Suez. Ptolemy subsequently patronized the exploration of the Red Sea (complete with colonies along the African coast) and voyages to India. His desire to tap the exotic luxuries of the East found a counterpart in his interests in sub-Saharan Africa. In fact, the only known foreign expedition personally led by Ptolemy went to Ethiopia in order to strengthen trade to the south. Perhaps Ptolemy’s most interesting foreign policy initiative came in 273 b.c.e., when he sent an embassy to Rome and became the first Hellenistic monarch to establish friendly relations with the Republic, which had only recently unified peninsular Italy.

Arsinoe II’s holdings in the Aegean (a legacy from her days as Macedonian queen) expanded the interests of Egypt in that region and eventually pitted Ptolemy against Antigonus II Gonatas (c. 320-239 b.c.e.), whose victories over the Gauls won for him Macedonia. Perhaps prompted by his wife’s more assertive personality, in the 270’s Ptolemy initiated an aggressive foreign policy that challenged not only Antigonus II, but the Seleucids as well.

His first conflict of note, the First Syrian War (c. 276-271 b.c.e.), was fought against the Seleucid Antiochus I (324-260/261 b.c.e.) over the Phoenician coast. This land not only lay astride the best approach to Egypt but also was an important terminus for trade that stretched eastward along several routes. In this war, Antiochus secured Damascus and successfully incited Magas (Ptolemy’s half brother and governor of Cyrene) to rebellion, but Ptolemy’s superior fleet was a scourge to Seleucid coastal settlements and eventually won the war for him. By its end, Ptolemy had regained Cyrene and extended his control of the coast northward into Syria. Arsinoe II was probably instrumental in planning the war, since soon after its conclusion, Ptolemy approved worship of her under the auspices of a state-cult, the first attested worship of a living human being since Alexander the Great. Indeed, Arsinoe’s political clout must have been enormous, since her portrait appeared with that of Ptolemy on Egyptian coins—an honor exclusively reserved for Hellenistic monarchs. Arsinoe died in July, 269 b.c.e.

In the Balkans, Ptolemy was a party to the Chremonidean War (266-261 b.c.e.) in which Athens, expecting strong Egyptian backing, led a Greek coalition against Macedonia. Accounts of this war are extremely fragmentary, making a reconstruction of its significance difficult. The reason Ptolemy did not order his forces in the Aegean to exploit the war more effectively is not known, but by and large they remained on the fringes while Antigonus II Gonatas defeated his opponents. Perhaps there is more than a grain of truth in the hypothesis that Ptolemy was an indecisive strategist when not influenced by the forceful Arsinoe II.

Whether the Egyptian success in the First Syrian War was because of Arsinoe, the Second Syrian War (c. 260-253 b.c.e.) saw Ptolemaic losses. Not long after his accession, the Seleucid Antiochus II (c. 287- 246 b.c.e.) attacked Ptolemaic possessions along the coast of Asia Minor. A complicated and elusive struggle followed, until Ptolemy conceded much of the Syrian coast under his garrison. The resulting peace was fixed by the marriage that joined Ptolemy’s daughter by Arsinoe I, Berenice, to Antiochus II.

At home, Ptolemy II faced a brief challenge to his authority in the 270’s from a brother, Argaeus, and was forced to recognize the semiautonomy of King Magas in Cyrene. Ptolemy was very successful, however, in establishing a variety of institutions that anchored the legitimacy of his dynasty in Egypt. For example, for the Macedonians who still remembered their native land and its traditions, at the beginning of his reign, Ptolemy established a royal cemetery in Alexandria around the remains of Alexander the Great and Ptolemy Soter. This foundation re-created in Egypt an institution from the homeland and provided a focus for the loyalties of the Macedonians in Egypt. It also acted as a bridge between the legitimacy of the extinct house of Alexander and the new authority of Ptolemy’s dynasty. Its political purpose is manifest: Ptolemy laid first claim to the authority of Alexander.

It was under Ptolemy that the apparatus that ruled Hellenistic Egypt matured. The native pharaonic system was too efficient a revenue producer to be abandoned, but the Ptolemies could not afford to trust their security to the loyalty of native Egyptians. As a result, the Ptolemies grafted an immigrant Greco-Macedonian ruling class onto the stock of Egyptian society and tried as much as possible to maintain the distinctiveness of the two social orders (for example, by severely limiting native Egyptian access to the city of Alexandria). Such a policy was doomed, at least in the Egyptian countryside, but in the time of Ptolemy it worked. Egypt was the sole possession of the Ptolemaic kings. Except for those estates alienated by the Ptolemies to attract European settlement, it remained their private property. The geographical isolation of Egypt made it possible to sever all but officially sanctioned foreign trade, and its economy was monopolized in the interests of the dynasty. Native Egyptians were compelled to render to Ptolemy at a fixed rate a percentage of their grain, which he thereafter sold abroad at a huge profit, while the immigrants paid significant taxes for the use of their land. In turn, these profits paid not only for such things as cultural patronage and the construction of a city that was home to about one million people but also for the domestic and foreign security ensured by Ptolemy’s sizable Greco-Macedonian military establishment.

Like his father before him, Ptolemy elevated his heir, Ptolemy III Euergetes (r. 246-221 b.c.e.), a son of Arsinoe I, to royal authority before his own demise. Ptolemy Philadelphus, having no sons by Arsinoe II, seems originally to have selected as his heir Arsinoe II’s only surviving son, but this Ptolemy apparently died in 258 b.c.e. Ptolemy Philadelphus died shortly after passing on the burdens of his office to his son.

Significance

The domestic and foreign policies that made Ptolemy Philadelphus’s Egypt the most stable Hellenistic power of his day were very expensive and pushed Egypt to its financial limit. Although an adequate defense of Egypt proper was maintained, the rivalries with Antigonid Macedonia and Seleucid Asia drained the treasury greatly. Arsinoe II may have been responsible for unleashing an aggressive foreign policy, but without her decisiveness to carry the stratagem through, Ptolemy’s remote interests languished, taking second place to Alexandrian pleasures.

Evidence suggests that Ptolemy was both intellectually curious and self-indulgent. He was a renowned cultural patron, attracting outstanding poets such as Theocritus (c. 310-c. 250 b.c.e.) and Callimachus (c. 305-c. 240 b.c.e.) to his court. Although Ptolemy patronized the greatest Hellenistic poets, perhaps his most important cultural legacy resulted from his support of scientific and technological investigation. Ptolemy encouraged such investigation through the great museum and library in Alexandria, which were to be the cultural mainstays of the Hellenistic tradition for the rest of antiquity. The concentration of talent attracted to Alexandria by royal patronage brought the city a luster that drew intellectuals who did not directly enjoy Ptolemy’s largess. Jews in large numbers took advantage of the city’s resources and there produced a Greek version of their sacred texts, which was to begin the process whereby the Jewish and Hellenistic traditions would intermingle. Ptolemy personally enjoyed the artistic fruits of his patronage, but he also benefited in practical ways: Figures such as the poet Apollonius of Rhodes gave him political advice, and his engineers constantly improved the technological efficiency of the Ptolemaic navy, thus enabling the fleet to remain competitive while Ptolemy was occupied elsewhere.

It is unfair to describe Ptolemy as lazy or hedonistic, for he was very much concerned with the administration of his kingdom at a time when his dynasty’s hold on Egypt was anything but traditionally anchored. Nevertheless, his talents were hardly those of his Macedonian predecessors. He did not feel comfortable leading troops into battle as had Philip II (382-336 b.c.e.), Alexander the Great, Ptolemy Soter, or even men such as his own contemporary, Pyrrhus (319-272 b.c.e.). His style of kingship—surrounding himself with elaborate layers of court officials and a well-oiled administration—tempered the martial spirit that underscored the foundation of Alexander’s Macedonian Empire and its division. A new age had dawned, an age that based its legitimacy on conquest but aspired to more peaceful pursuits.

Bibliography

Burstein, Stanley. “Arsinoe II Philadelphos: A Revisionist View.” In Philip II, Alexander the Great, and the Macedonian Heritage. Washington, D.C.: University Press of America, 1982. Argues that Arsinoe II should not be credited with single-handedly devising Ptolemy’s foreign policy.

Fraser, Peter Marshall. Ptolemaic Alexandria. 3 vols. Oxford, England: Clarendon Press, 1972. The authoritative study of the Ptolemaic capital and virtually every institution associated with the Ptolemaic Dynasty. An essential work for anyone interested in the development of Ptolemaic society.

Holbl, Gunther. A History of the Ptolemaic Empire. Translated by Tine Saavedra. New York: Routledge, 2000. Ptolemy Philadelphus is covered in part 1 of this study. Includes bibliography, index, and maps.

Macurdy, Grace Harriet. Hellenistic Queens. 1932. Reprint. Chicago: Ares, 1985. Includes excellent reviews of what is known of the careers of Arsinoe I and Arsinoe II and, in connection with the latter, a standard summary of her influence over her brother and husband, Ptolemy.

Shipley, Graham. The Greek World After Alexander, 323-30 B.C. New York: Routledge, 2000. This overview of the Hellenistic world provides insight into the complicated interrelationships between Alexander’s heirs. Includes some useful dynastic tables and genealogical charts, as well as index and bibliography.

Turner, E. G. “Ptolemaic Egypt.” The Hellenistic World. Vol. 7 in The Cambridge Ancient History. 2d ed. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1984. A review of the Ptolemaic system in Egypt. Includes a good discussion of the social structures harnessed and exploited by Ptolemy.